http://medicine.yale.edu/childstudy/autism/class/75484_Autism%20in%20Infancy%20and%20Early%20Childhood%20-%20VOLKMAR%202005.pdf
Great paper on autism and infancy from Yale


http://www.springerlink.com/content/q3766vu254p71831/
This is a study that looked at the development of vocabulary and looked at the comparison between teacher taught and computer presented to determine which appeared to have the best success rate.
JOURNAL OF AUTISM AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERSVolume 30, Number 4, 359-362, DOI: 10.1023/A:1005535602064
autisticgirlmartialart.jpg

Research shows that one of the best predictors of later reading success is a well-developed oral vocabulary in kindergarten. "PreK kids are learning vocabulary at the rate of five to six words a day," says Waite-Stupiansky. "It's just amazing how they will retain words if you use them several times in context and conversation."

WhenPigsFly.jpg

http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/~aleslie/Scott_Baron-Cohen_Leslie.pdf
This is a study done by Simon Baron-Cohen et al ‘If pigs could fly’: A test of counter factual reasoning and pretense in children with autism


The findings showing that children with autism have no trouble determining when someone can and cannot see a physical object(Baron-Cohen, 1989, 1991; Hobson, 1984; Leslie & Frith, 1988). These results suggest that the children with autism were confused about the ontological status of the mental states that were being talked about during the pretend training.

Some terms you might want to know more about in reading the article:
  • Usha Goswami, a professor at the University of Cambridge, defines naïve or folk physics as an intuitive understanding all humans have about objects in the physical world.[1] Cognitive psychologists are delving deeper into these phenomena with promising results. Psychological studies indicate that certain notions of the physical world are innate in all of us.

Folk psychology is interpreted as a theory when the ‘common sense’ perceptions of one’s daily life (such as those of pain, pleasure, excitement, anxiety, etc.) are interpreted as principles that are used to explain mental states. When our ordinary view of mental states is interpreted as a ‘common sense’ or folk theory of mind, it is referred to as the theory theory.[1] The theory of mind consisting of our ‘common sense’ understanding mental states can be interpreted two distinct ways, in an external sense and an internal sense.


  • on·tol·o·gy


    [on-tol-uh-jee] external image dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif
    noun1.the branch of metaphysics that studies the nature of existence or being as such.